#that's the most logical of explanations

[magical-awesome-kid]

That moment when you use your Master’s Degree in Cell and Molecular Biology and your peer-reviewed knowledge of cancer and blood biology to write out a highly accurate reason for Anime Logic…

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

This is why some people should just stop watching Doctor Who once they reach a certain level of cynicism. Moffat tends to write from the perspective of an imaginative child, seeing the impossible in the ordinary, not as a sceptical adult who has Occam's razor as their default setting.

[starcurtain]

A Very Rambling Rant about Alhaitham and Aranara

Sigh. Everyone on twitter is all excited over this idea that Alhaitham can see aranara, and I don't mean to be downer but like... I kind of hate this. Not the idea of Alhaitham seeing aranara, which is very cute, very nice, yes, but more the way this kind of thing unfolds.

It's a classic example of unconfirmed material, extraneous to the actual game, getting put out on social media like it's canon: Someone tweets "ALHAITHAM CAN SEE ARANARA!!" and suddenly it's running rampant in the fandom and people are completely convinced it's canonically true, without the actual game or any confirmed story-relevant materials genuinely supporting the idea. This is exactly how misinformation gets spread. (I'm looking at you, "Jade enslaved Aventurine" Star Rail fandom brainrot.)

And it's this "bandwagon canon" that leads to constant issues in the fandom when people point out that even some widely accepted stuff is actually fanon. People are literally vicious over defending things that don't actually have any evidence in the game itself.

I really wish this fandom was better at distinguishing "This thing is factually true" and "This is a really cool idea and there might be a few hints for it! I'm going to make this my headcanon!" Watching stuff in fandom go un-fact-checked genuinely makes me terrified for people's ability to fact check real world issues sometimes!

Not to mention the way this conversation is happening is just really unpleasant too?

I saw multiple tweets with thousands of likes going around saying things like "Of course Alhaitham can still see the aranara; he has child-like wonder while Kaveh is traumatized and had to grow up too fast, so it makes sense he can't see them."

Which like... This is so gross to me? Are these people just missing the massive unfortunate implications of their own words--the idea that traumatized people can't experience wonder for the world anymore? That they're somehow broken and can't experience any child-like joy??? It's a deeply unpleasant take to me.

And not only that, it directly contradicts actual canon, because Yoimiya's entire second story quest was about a girl going through a traumatic illness that confined her to a wheelchair and led to her experiencing guilt and depression--and about helping her to see that everything that made life worth living was still there for her, and that she had never lost her wonder or will to live in the first place.

And the whole thing just smacks of a fundamental misunderstanding of why adults can't see the aranara in the first place. It's not because there's some sort of magical "You must be 18 or younger to see aranara" rule. It's because the aranara themselves choose not to be seen by adults. They protect themselves by making themselves invisible. They're not invisible by nature! Everyone can see them--when the aranara want to be seen. Conversely, this means that adults with "childlike wonder" are not just automatically seeing aranara left and right. No matter how happy and childish at heart an adult is, they will only see an aranara if the aranara personally trust them and want to be seen.

The aranara trust children because children are generally good-hearted (and also probably easy to escape from), so there is usually no need to keep themselves invisible to children, but even among children, they are invisible until they choose to be seen. (I think everyone forgot the quest where you find the child who was kidnapped by the Fatui in the forest, saved by an aranara who chose to reveal itself to her, but then she refuses to go back to the village, so you leave her at the aranara nursery--only the aranara there at the nursery choose not to reveal themselves to her because they don't know her yet.) Even with children, aranara don't just go running up on them--they're incredibly cautious creatures who only show themselves after they're sure they'll be safe. They distrust adults because adults deliberately use "growing up" as an excuse to abandon simplicity, kindness, and gentleness in order to embrace concepts that include getting ahead of others and seeking profit--two things which could be particularly dangerous for a vulnerable forest fairy population.

There's also an extremely complicated intersection between the aranara and memory, as they represent and upon "death" return to being the forest's living memory itself. Avin, the girl in Yoimiya's story quest, is a child--but still loses the ability to visit her aranara companion because her illness keeps her away from the forest so long that she simply forgets her aranara buddy ever existed. Even aranara who would love to continue playing with their human companions find themselves forgotten over and over again, because they simply don't linger in human memory well. It's a giant metaphor for how fleeting and temporary human existence is in comparison to the natural world! It's a metaphorrrrrrr.

(There's also the fact that aranara freely move between reality and dreaming--something which Sumeru's adult population only recently regained the ability to even do.)

And like... does no one remember that Yoimiya could only see the aranara because Traveler was there to introduce her to them? She doesn't just automatically see them even though she has all the childish wonder possible in her heart.

I even saw tweets saying that anyone who thinks Alhaitham doesn't have child-like wonder in his heart and wouldn't automatically be able to see aranara fundamentally misunderstands his character and I just... First, see the point above--this is already a misunderstanding of how aranara work.

Second, am I just crazy, or is there absolutely nothing about having wonder and curiosity and passion for the world around you that is confined to children? Are we really going with "Having an imagination is for kids" as our takeaway from all this?

Alhaitham absolutely is passionate! He loves Sumeru as much as Nahida does! The mysteries of the world fascinate him, and he wants to be doing nothing more than ravenously learning and taking in new information at every opportunity!

But finding wonder and joy in life's mysteries is absolutely not restricted to children!

There's nothing inherently "childish" about loving fiction and the fantastical world of books, having a vivid imagination, being passionate about learning new things, and just plain out enjoying life. I'm sorry everyone else has apparently become such miserable adults that the only way they can believe Alhaitham finds joy in the world is by assuming he must have maintained a "child-like" inner nature. Please go read more books and touch more grass and maybe you too will experience adult wonder and joy???

Alhaitham's vivid curiosity about the world isn't remotely "child-like." It's based on the same sort of philosophical obsessions that drove Plato and Aristotle to redefine human thinking. To Alhaitham, Sumeru is likely much more vivid and beautiful and full of intrigue because he is now an adult who has the ability to freely think, formulate deeper questions, and the means to pursue research into his personal passions. His teaser trailer is literally about how he took the job of the Scribe because the Scribe records truth--not child-like faith in the magic of the world, but a constant unfilled yearning to get closer and closer to what is real.

If Alhaitham can see aranara, it's because he's earned the trust of the aranara by his deeds, not because he's secretly still an innocent, sweet baby boy deep down who has chosen not to grow up. (And like, if "traumatized people don't see aranara" is really what we're going with, are we actually arguing Kaveh is the only traumatized, "grew up too soon" one here? Did everyone just forget Alhaitham is an orphan with zero surviving family members left in the world and that he spent his entire childhood friendless, at least as far as we've been shown?)

Winning the trust of the aranara is something anyone could do if they show strong enough positive traits--just basic kindness, gentleness, and patience, which I promise you, adults can have.

At the very least, if we're going to suggest Alhaitham is child-like, can't we at least point to his actual childish behaviors, such as constantly pulling Kaveh's pigtails like a schoolboy with his first crush? Throwing hands with anyone who pisses him off too much? Being a jokester who continually sends Paimon books because she picked on him for his choice of reading materials once? At least y'all could have started there... Come on, now.

Phew, this really was a whole rant, but I just needed to get that off my chest. The Hoyo fandoms on twitter are so, so bad. Like man, don't claim people are mischaracterizing someone while not even knowing the lore yourself... Sorry if that sounds harsh, but...

[pianokantzart]

I knew something was missing from Luigi's Mansion 3 where was the scene where a space theme leads to a disorienting warping of physics and reality?

[snips-fics]

My friend @kybercrystals94 correctly interpreted the ancient prophecy, so now I will have to draw this.

[penofwildfire]

Cliff Gordon is so blatantly meant to parallel Nadakhan and it's kind of embarrassing how few people actually seemed to pick up on it. Like you're telling me they revealed that Jay had a birth father who was a misogynistic manipulative dickhead in the same season where he gets kidnapped by a misogynistic manipulative dickhead???? And then the point of Jay's arc was about him learning NOT to be a dickhead?????? Hello????????

[lover-of-mine]

No, but this is definitely my most controversial opinion, but the whole thing with Buck and Eddie being the same age comes back to the fact that they are mirrors of each other. Down to the tattoos with mirrored placement, yes, but like, narratively speaking too. They've been running parallel to each other their whole lives and them being the same age makes that even more intense. Eddie had to grow up too fast and Buck didn't have to grow up at all. Eddie was forced to take care of more than he could and Buck was never allowed to care as much as he wanted. Both of them ran because their lives were overwhelming. Buck gives Eddie the tools to slow down for the first time in years while Eddie gives Buck something he's allowed to care about. They're two sides of the same coin. They complement each other. They're each other's missing piece. And that's so much better when they're the same age.

[licorishh]

after extensive research (one page of google search results) and painstaking effort (42 seconds of time) i have finally discovered (skim-read reddit flavor text) that apparently the genes that determine head hair color are not the same genes that determine eyebrow color which means !! it is actually possible to have someone with blond head hair and dark eyebrows which means !! au naturel rex is entirely plausible. it is statistically possible that he does indeed just Look Like That.

also i feel i should say that i have no idea if any of that is actually true or if it's a bunch of bull-hockey so take it with a grain of salt. assuming that it is though then we can keep rex sensibly in-character by saying no he does not have the time to be running around with a box of hair dye what the heck

[scribledon]

How am I supposed to live normally while I’m thinking about the fact that in the Blackadder family tree there is a Darling-Blackadder??? Hello???

[sharper-than-a-serpents-tooth]

Black magic always has a catch. If it makes her relatives commit atrocities for her sake like poisoning her or executing her sister, things than can indirectly harm the person they claim to love either physically or mentally, then why shouldn't this be applied to the others as well? Roger locking up Jennette because the black magic made him platonically overprotective/possessive of her and arranging a marriage between Ijekiel and her because he wants to keep her in the family or the tea party girls bullying Jennette because they secretly fancied her, but their feelings were twisted too, even more than the feelings of the boys who were encouraged to duel each other for the hand of a beautiful lady. Unlike the gentlemen who would destroy each other over the lovely princess, the ladies were forced to conceal their simmering resentment and directed their hatred against the object of their affection instead of their competition.

What I'm saying is those girls who bullied Jennette mercilessly in The Lovely Princess were all confused bisexuals and panicking over their newfound attraction.

[epickiya722]

I said it here and I'm still going to say this for MHA's ending...

Things with be slow, but slowly getting better. The ending will lean more into being open for the audience to imagine what will happen.

I'm telling you, we're going to get Izuku smiling again. Going to get some things left for the audience to imagine what could happen after because Horikoshi may feel a tad bit of confidence that the readers can come imagine it so. I just feel like the ending will be more open.

EDIT: AND HE SMILES!!

[wombywoo]

WOMBY! I am dying. I need to know all the things! Poor Quinn, his head is probably reeling worse than mine is with all this new information. How does he feel seeing his dreams come to life with him in the centre of them??

I really want to know about the dragon, if they meet and befriend one or if it's just one that Birdie controls. 🤔 Perhaps the real dragon is Fig, since she plays such an important role. XD

Please know that every new snippet of information about this world of yours is leaving me over here like this:

Eeehhhyeahhh I love getting to share new tidbits!! 🙆‍♀️

Quinn's a bit of a weirdo in that he really doesn't react to the strange stuff that occurs in his life. Prophetic dreams that come true? Eh. Vampire man who flew planes that he saw in dreams now a major part of his life? Probably means nothing. Deep down he's likely Concerned about things, but he tries not to dwell too much...

As for the Dragon--Birdie may have acquired one by chance, and has begun the process of domesticating it. In general, they're dangerous and wild, so this is a rarity in itself. For 'military purposes' this now means they want to use the thing as an asset. So--our team is going to attempt to fly and control the damn beast !!! To do this, they require a type of blood pact--Vincent's blood injected into the dragon on a regular basis so he can form a mind link with it and sort of control it....there will be more about this, I'm still working things out...

Fig is sadly not a dragon, but she is still absolutely necessary for the dynamic of the team !!!!!

[hazelwongspullover]

i love may wong and the deadly flat, but does anyone else think it’s odd that may, rose and vincent were staying in the mountfitchets flat?

like vincent and the mountfitchets have never spoken to each other in the og series, obviously felix and lucy rlly like hazel but i feel like she would be where their priorities with the wongs would end?

idk i’m just interested to why they’re not staying in a hotel or renting a lodge lol

[badninken]

HE CAN USE CORA-SAN'S POWER???? D':

omhuguuuuddddddddh

my whole chest hurts

I wasn't ready for this

[episims]

Another one I had happily forgotten about! Quite literally because this, uh......

This was the inventory I found Tristan with.

[firestorm09890]

put my fuckin guy in the combination persona 4 dungeon twewy plot dnd roleplay thing and it's awesome. mandatory persona 4 glasses made him pull his hair out of his face and it is regrettably very cute. he's trying so hard to keep the party from going off the rails. he's on the verge of sensory meltdown himself. he's a genius whose input is valuable. he's projecting and probably shouldn’t be here. he's so cool. he's visibly uncomfortable being around everyone else. he cast the level 3 spell Fear on a Shark Noise. yeah the one from week 1 day 4 that killed Rhyme. it didn't kill Rhyme this time, heh [puts on my sunglasses